A couple of months ago when I agreed to write for The Sun - Tabloid Lies, I chose columnist Jon Gaunt as my "beat", because I thought the rightwing blowhard would be a rich view of material.
I suppose I was right and wrong.
Jon Gaunt certainly makes the informed reader bristle, but then his material is so heavily recycled it's hard for me to find anything new to say about it.
For one, he constantly uses lazy hyperbole with little regard to the sophistication of an issue. This is annoying as it's just plain populism - but then in The Sun, what isn't?
Another trick is his propensity to re-use the same anecdote time and time again.
Take his most recent column where he brings up abandoned Gurkhas and Abu Hamza - both of which starred in last week's column. (For the record I applaud Gaunt for standing with the Gurkhas and raising their profile, but I do question his motives, as he constantly uses the issue to bash less-worthy immigrants).
Always accompanying his favourite anecdotes are Gaunty's favourite generalisations - his memes. This week we're treated to a gluten of rightwing memes, which leave a seasoned Gaunty reader like me feeling overwhelmed by the seething vitriol.
He had the government's "support" for the "feckless", the foreigners (of course), and the "long-term useless" (I wondered what the difference was between the feckless and the long-term useless, but my head began to hurt).
Then we read Gaunty bashing the government for rising crime (it's not rising), immigration, taxes, fuel and energy costs (errr, we have an unregulated market for energy - Thatcher's legacy, I seem to recall), and unemployment.
It's a constant and relentless stream of rightwing talking points. It's exactly what keeps highly paid columnists like Gaunty busy. He knows he can rehash the same tired memes every week, and he knows that the salivating editors at The Sun will lap it up. I just wish I had thought of it first (I guess being a principled liberal blogger is what I have to do to get some sleep at night).
But this week it wasn't the tired old anecdotes or the barrage of memes that made me bristle, it was Gaunty's utterly appalling attempt to insert humour into his piece. The guy just isn't the comedy genius he thinks he is.
First we have Jon accusing Brown of lying to the people during his speech at the Labour Conference, claiming "Del Boy has been more honest down Peckham market". Oh hilarious. And if that didn't have you giggling like a schoolgirl, he compares David Miliband to Rodney Trotter.
Oh please, Jon. Stop it. You're killing me.
Next, reflecting on a Jackie Wilson song used by Labour, he joked that we'd be better off with darts player Jocky Wilson running the country. Did you see what he did there? He swapped Jackie with Jocky! This is comedy gold people. *sighs*
Oh, but wait. Jon's not finished with you yet.
Jon now claims that hook-handed, benefit loving terror-monger Abu Hamza (him again), would be "sticking two fingers up at all of us if he still had a hand". Hahahahaha*breath*hahahahaha! Bill Hicks eat your heart out.
Observant readers may have noticed a hint of sarcasm in my commentary. Well, as said, Jon Gaunt isn't the comedy genius he thinks he is. This is crap Sun humour. It isn't funny and Gaunt does it all the time. His stand-up routine must be crucifying.
Oh, and if you think I'm being unfair - check out Bill Saporito's latest column in Time to see how piss-taking is really done.
Until next time, folks. Cheers.
I suppose I was right and wrong.
Jon Gaunt certainly makes the informed reader bristle, but then his material is so heavily recycled it's hard for me to find anything new to say about it.
For one, he constantly uses lazy hyperbole with little regard to the sophistication of an issue. This is annoying as it's just plain populism - but then in The Sun, what isn't?
Another trick is his propensity to re-use the same anecdote time and time again.
Take his most recent column where he brings up abandoned Gurkhas and Abu Hamza - both of which starred in last week's column. (For the record I applaud Gaunt for standing with the Gurkhas and raising their profile, but I do question his motives, as he constantly uses the issue to bash less-worthy immigrants).
Always accompanying his favourite anecdotes are Gaunty's favourite generalisations - his memes. This week we're treated to a gluten of rightwing memes, which leave a seasoned Gaunty reader like me feeling overwhelmed by the seething vitriol.
He had the government's "support" for the "feckless", the foreigners (of course), and the "long-term useless" (I wondered what the difference was between the feckless and the long-term useless, but my head began to hurt).
Then we read Gaunty bashing the government for rising crime (it's not rising), immigration, taxes, fuel and energy costs (errr, we have an unregulated market for energy - Thatcher's legacy, I seem to recall), and unemployment.
It's a constant and relentless stream of rightwing talking points. It's exactly what keeps highly paid columnists like Gaunty busy. He knows he can rehash the same tired memes every week, and he knows that the salivating editors at The Sun will lap it up. I just wish I had thought of it first (I guess being a principled liberal blogger is what I have to do to get some sleep at night).
But this week it wasn't the tired old anecdotes or the barrage of memes that made me bristle, it was Gaunty's utterly appalling attempt to insert humour into his piece. The guy just isn't the comedy genius he thinks he is.
First we have Jon accusing Brown of lying to the people during his speech at the Labour Conference, claiming "Del Boy has been more honest down Peckham market". Oh hilarious. And if that didn't have you giggling like a schoolgirl, he compares David Miliband to Rodney Trotter.
Oh please, Jon. Stop it. You're killing me.
Next, reflecting on a Jackie Wilson song used by Labour, he joked that we'd be better off with darts player Jocky Wilson running the country. Did you see what he did there? He swapped Jackie with Jocky! This is comedy gold people. *sighs*
Oh, but wait. Jon's not finished with you yet.
Jon now claims that hook-handed, benefit loving terror-monger Abu Hamza (him again), would be "sticking two fingers up at all of us if he still had a hand". Hahahahaha*breath*hahahahaha! Bill Hicks eat your heart out.
Observant readers may have noticed a hint of sarcasm in my commentary. Well, as said, Jon Gaunt isn't the comedy genius he thinks he is. This is crap Sun humour. It isn't funny and Gaunt does it all the time. His stand-up routine must be crucifying.
Oh, and if you think I'm being unfair - check out Bill Saporito's latest column in Time to see how piss-taking is really done.
Until next time, folks. Cheers.
1 comment:
It's all pretty much the same: Littlejohn mines similar resources for his stuff, but even I have to admit that on occasion Littlejohn can be something approaching amusing. Gaunt is the low-rent, thick-headed Littlejohn, and that's really saying something.
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